Donald Trump’s Federal Reserve chair has been confirmed by the US Senate in a vote that fell largely along party lines.
Kevin Warsh won confirmation on Wednesday with 54 votes in favour and 45 against. He will succeed Jerome Powell, whose tenure featured multiple clashes with the US president over interest rates. His term ends on Friday.
Warsh’s confirmation was the narrowest margin for the Senate approval of a Fed chair since the process was implemented in 1977.
Only one Democrat, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, voted in favour to confirm Warsh.
Warsh is facing a difficult balancing act when he steps into the role, with President Trump having made clear he expects his pick to lower the Fed’s interest rate at a time when the US-Israel war in Iran is driving up the cost of living.
Usually, the central bank would seek to hold or raise interest rates when inflation is on the rise, to keep a lid on price increases. Indeed, following Tuesday’s inflation figures, which showed prices rising at 3.8% annually in April, the fastest rate since May 2023, most economists now expect rates to be held until next year – with some even warning of a rise.
The rise in inflation has been driven largely by surging energy costs facing consumers, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz having caused oil prices to spike.
But it also showed food, housing and airfare costs are on the rise.
Warsh will be under pressure from Trump to cut rates, which the president hopes will help the US economy. And he will be up against a similar fallout with the US president as his predecessor Powell, who now is the subject of a federal probe launched by the Trump administration.
Trump frequently clashed with Powell, describing him as incompetent and the worst Fed chair in history for not cutting rates fast enough.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Warsh vowed he will not act as Trump’s “sock puppet” and will fight to defend the central bank’s independence.
But the ranking Democrat on the committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren, warned Warsh is “uniquely ill-suited” for the role and has been put in place to do Trump’s bidding.
Warsh on Tuesday was confirmed by the Senate to serve as a Fed governor, a prerequisite to sit as chair and a position he previously held from 2006 to 2011.
He will take the place of current Fed governor Stephen Miran, currently the central bank’s biggest supporter of cutting interest rates.
Carl Tobias, Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond, told the BBC that Warsh faces a “Mission Impossible” when he takes on the job.
Inflation is “roaring” while the US president is “vociferously demanding lower interest rates and the Fed board is sharply divided”.
He added: “The final Senate vote along party lines with Fetterman the lone Democrat favouring Warsh exemplifies the increasingly politicised confirmation processes for critical executive branch nominees, such as US attorneys, and federal judges.”
Warsh’s nomination will now go to President Trump’s desk for final approval.
